If you're looking for a high-end all-in-one (AIO) for the home or home officeor a single AIO for bothdon't overlook the HP Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One ($299.99 direct). Although it's limited by its 125-sheet paper capacity to relatively light-duty use, it offers sharp-looking, fast photo output; business essentials that include a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF); and both Ethernet and Wi-Fi support for easy sharing throughout the house. The combination makes it a good place to start your searchand quite possibly end it as well.

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In addition to fast and notably high-quality photo output, the printer's photocentric features include the ability to print directly from PictBridge cameras, memory cards, and USB keys, as well as preview photos before printing on its 2.4-inch color LCD. It can also print by way of a Bluetooth connection, as well as directly on printable discsanother feature aimed primarily at home use, although offices might find it useful for labeling discs more neatly than most people would be capable of by hand.

Office-centric features start with printing, scanning, copying, and faxing over a network, and include the ability to scan to e-mail through your PC by automatically opening an e-mail message and attaching the scanned document. In addition, the printer works as a standalone copier and fax machine, and scans directly to a USB key or memory card. (Not so incidentally, don't try to read anything into the word "Fax" in the printer's name. It's just HP's way of making sure you don't overlook the fact that it supports faxingunlike most home AIOs.)

The ADF accommodates legal-size pages, a welcome convenience in most offices. It can also turn each page over to scan, fax, or copy both sides, simplifying what would otherwise be a time-consuming chore. Better still, since the printer is capable of printing both sides, you can easily copy from both simplex (one-sided) and duplex (two-sided) originals to your choice of simplex or duplex copies.

Setting up the Premium Fax AIO is standard fare. Find a spot for the 11.1-by-18.4-by-18.6-inch (HWD) printer, remove the packing materials, plug in the cables, and turn it on. Then load paper, install the five ink cartridges (for cyan, yellow, magenta, black, and photo black), and wait for it to print an alignment page. When it's finished, you can run the automated setup routine from disc. I installed the printer on a wired network using Windows Vista, but according to HP, it also ships with drivers and a full set of software for Windows XP (SP1 or later), Windows Vista x64, and Mac OS X 10.4 and later. In addition, HP says it provides a driver for XP x64 (also SP1 or later).

The printer scored reasonably well in speed on our tests, particularly for photos. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com) at a total of 12 minutes 38 secondsa speed that would have counted as notably fast just a year ago but is better characterized today as respectable.

Among its most direct competitors, the Epson Artisan 800 is much faster, at 8:10. On the other hand, the HP printer is a lot faster than the Kodak ESP 9 All-In-One Printer, at 18:44. The photo speed far superior to that of the competition, averaging 1:07 for a 4-by-6 and 2:29 for an 8-by-10, compared with the Epson printer (59 seconds and 2:08, respectively), and the Kodak printer (58 seconds and 1:41, respectively).

Output quality on my tests was just a touch below par for an inkjet AIO for text but among the best available for graphics and photos. Although one font in our test suite qualified as both easily readable and well formed at 4 points, I had to increase the size to 8 points for more than half of the fonts to pass both thresholds. One font that you might reasonably want to use for business documents didn't pass the well-formed test even at 20 points because of a character spacing issue. It was easily readable, however, at sizes as small as 6 points.

All told, I'd call the text good enough for schoolwork, personal correspondence, and most business-related use. I wouldn't even consider using it for something like a resumé, however, or any other time I wanted to impress someone with my professionalism.

The graphics output is in a different league from the text. I saw obvious banding on some graphics in default mode, but no important flaws in high-quality mode. Even thin lines that most printers lose completely showed clearly. The output is certainly good enough for printing everything up to and including your own marketing materials, like trifold brochures. With the paper we use on our tests, however, I saw a slight tendency for full-page graphics to curl, which means you may need to invest in a more-expensive, heavier-weight paper for graphics.

Photo quality is in the same rarefied league as graphics. The only issue I saw was a slight tint in a black-and-white photo. But even with the tint, most people would consider the photo acceptable. All of the photos qualified as true photo quality, suitable for framingand a touch better than I'd expect from a typical drugstore photo.

As I've already mentioned, the printer is limited to light-duty use, primarily because of its 125-sheet paper capacity. If the total number of pages you print, fax, and copy is more than about 25 sheets a day, you may find yourself refilling the paper tray more often than you'd like. One nice touch, however, is a dedicated second tray for 20 sheets of 5-by-7-inch photo paper, so you can switch between photos and standard printing without having to change paper.

Also very much worthy of mention is that the Premium Fax AIO is one of the first printers to earn the PCMag.com GreenTech Approved seal. Among other key points, it is RoHS and REACH compliant and Energy Star 1.0 qualified. (HP also expects it to qualify under the 1.1 guidelines, although they aren't finalized yet.) Its scanner uses an LED light source, which is mercury-free and cuts down on energy use because it doesn't need to warm up before scanning. There's also a recycling program in place for both ink cartridges and the printer itself, with no out-of-pocket cost in either case.

On our practical tests for green issues, I needed only one button press to cancel a print job, and printing stopped immediately, without wasting any additional ink or paper. Printing a 12-page Word file in duplex mode took only about 2.5 times as long as in simplex mode, at 4:17 compared with 1:42.

The Premium Fax AIO is covered under HP's standard one-year warranty. If you have a problem that can't be solved with a phone call, HP will ship a replacement along with a return shipping label, with HP covering the cost of shipping both ways.

Ultimately, the HP Photosmart Premium Fax AIO offers a winning combination of reasonably fast speed, high-quality output overall, and a host of both photocentric and office-centric features, all of which adds up to making it an easy pick for Editors' Choice.

M. David Stone is an award-winning freelance writer and computer industry consultant. Although a confirmed generalist, with writing credits on subjects as varied as ape language experiments, politics, quantum physics, and an overview of a...

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